What is Required of a Flight Attendant in an Emergency?

Flight attendants are expected to project the image of safety on a flight. They do so by appearing being “cool, calm and collected”.

Because when anything happens on a flight, it’s truly the flight attendants who are in control. Sure, the pilots are flying the aircraft but the pilots don’t have a rear view mirror.

This begs the question – who’s really in control during a flight? Flight attendants are, of course!

How are flight attendants able to stay in control?

Through extensive training by the airline, flight attendants are given the skills they need to handle the most high-intensity, stressful situations encountered during a flight – and we’re not just talking about a little turbulence.

Flight attendants are coached, drilled and tested first-hand by instructors using disturbingly real mock scenarios as part of the airline’s advanced training facilities. Some drills as part of their training include dark, smoke-filled cabins and nighttime water landings in the rain.

What are typical in-flight emergencies?

In-flight fire, equipment malfunction and security threats rate highly amongst the emergencies that receive the most attention in the media – but most in-flight the most common are medical emergencies, with many passenger flights being redirected due to medical emergencies.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg of stuff we have to know. Look at the size of the manual. We have to know this stuff. And we get updates, revisions and bulletins every few weeks when stuff changes. So in actuality, we’re retraining all of the time. – Patricia Sund for Huffington Post